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Emergency workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston on Monday. (Associated Press)

At least five from Lake Area were in Boston Marathon

Last Modified: Monday, April 15, 2013 10:14 PM

At least five runners from Southwest Louisiana took part in the Boston Marathon, the site of a deadly terrorist attack.

Geoff Landry, of Lake Charles, Stephanie Moss, of Lake Charles, Kenneth Istre, of Sulphur, David Howard, of Sulphur, and Scott Cushing, of Leesville all were listed as competing in the race.

Moss’ husband, Kelley, said she finished the race about two minutes before the first bomb went off and was about 200 yards away, but was unharmed.

A runner from Lafayette was about a block away when the bombs exploded. Two runners from Opelousas crossed the line about two minutes before the explosions. They and 18 Baton Rouge-area runners are safe, state newspapers reported.

Anne Sagrera, 39, a fitness instructor from
Lafayette, said she'd finished the race about an hour earlier, The
Advertiser reported. "I was about a block away going
to the family meeting area when I heard the first explosion.
Shortly after I heard the second one," said Sagrera, reached by
cellphone.

Opelousas residents Kathryn Jarrell and Jennifer Castille finished one second apart, at 4:01:15 and 4:01:16, online records
show. Both were unharmed by the explosions, Castille's husband, Ric Castille, told The Daily World.

"She called me but then we got cut off almost immediately," he said. "She told me everything's OK, and that the group that
came from Opelousas, they're all OK."

Ric Castille said about 12 women from
Opelousas went to Boston for the marathon, but only Castille, 52, and
Jarrell, both
veteran marathoners, ran. He said his wife, a sales executive with
Lou-Ana Foods in Opelousas, ran the Boston Marathon last
year and qualified again this year.

Of six Acadiana residents registered to run
in the race, all but one was recorded as finishing. The other, Boyd
Girouard of
Kaplan, did not even have a time recorded at the halfway mark,
according to marathon records. It wasn't known whether he started,
The Advertiser reported.

All 18 members of the Varsity Sports team were unhurt, store owner Jenni Peters told The Advocate (http://bit.ly/10YuGA9).
At Sullivan's Restaurant, manager Lindsey Fussell said general manager and runner Leo Verde, who raised $25,000 for cystic
fibrosis with his run, also was safe.

Peters said people at the store were celebrating their team's high finish — the men were second overall and the women third
— when they learned about the explosion.

"You go from jubilation to the horror that something like this could happen," she said.

The commander of Louisiana State Police said his agency and law enforcement agencies all over the country are monitoring the
situation in Boston.

Col. Mike Edmonson said Monday that the Louisiana monitoring is occurring at state police headquarters in an around-the-clock
operation that works to identify threats of violence or terrorism by communicating with local and federal authorities.

Edmonson said there so far is no indication of any Louisiana connection to the Boston explosions.